Posts Tagged ‘defense real estate’

A survey of soldiers needs conducted by the Army and the RAND Corporation at 45 posts could lead to new partnerships between installations and their host communities to provide services to personnel that now are going unfulfilled. “Today’s Soldier Survey” is intended to help the department’s leaders evaluate which benefits are valued most by soldiers and family members. The assessment will help identify problems soldiers and their families have experienced over the past year, reported the Army News Service. Army leadership will use the results to determine how the department can best address the most pressing unmet needs, whether through Army-provided services or community and non-federal entity partnerships …

Lend Lease (US) Public Partnerships last week hosted a ceremonial ribbon cutting at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston to celebrate the opening of the world’s largest Candlewood Suites as part of the Privatization of Army Lodging (PAL) program. The five-story, 153,685-square-foot hotel is designed as an extended-stay model with 310 studio and one-bedroom suites offering full kitchenettes and large work areas. Features include a swimming pool with patio pavilion; business, fitness and laundry facilities; daily hot breakfast; and a free on-post shuttle. The Army launched the PAL program in 2009 to revitalize on-post lodging facilities for soldiers, their families and government travelers …

Dover Air Force Base, Del., formally turned over its water system to Tidewater Utilities earlier this month, following its selection last year through a competitive solicitation. Tidewater will provide the installation with potable water service under a 50-year contract, and own and maintain all of the base’s water utility assets. The firm also will be responsible for making capital improvements to the system, reported the News Journal. “The commencement of the privatization agreement with [the Air Force base], a premier U.S. military facility, marks a turning point for our company and signals our capability to be a viable and competitive contender for military base water system privatizations across the country,” said Dennis Doll, president and CEO of Middlesex Water, the parent company of Tidewater.

Concessionaires at military installations will not be granted an exemption from new rules requiring federal contractors to raise the minimum wage for fast food workers, according to regulations issued Tuesday by the Labor Department. The Labor Department issued the rules to implement an executive order signed by President Obama in February establishing a $10.10 per hour minimum wage beginning Jan. 1 for workers on federal contracts. Since the president’s action, the services and lawmakers had expressed concerns that the increased cost — about 40 percent — could force on-base eateries to close, costing many military family members their jobs …

Officials in Layton, Utah, believe a newly approved 90-acre project area with access to the runway at Hill Air Force Base will attract development to a business park being created under an enhanced use lease. The project area available for shared use is located on the east side of the runway. It was approved Tuesday by the state Military Installation Development Authority, reported the Standard-Examiner. Last year, the city and the Air Force entered into a partnership to market the parcel to industry …

Despite some improvements in its real property records, DOD data on utilization of its buildings continues to be incomplete and inaccurate, limiting the department’s ability to identify opportunities to consolidate facilities, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded in a new report. Reported utilization rates were available for only 53 percent of DOD’s real property assets as of fiscal 2013. That figure, however, was an improvement from FY 2010, when officials had utilization rates for only 46 percent of the department’s assets …

Developing criteria to determine when it should pursue a real property exchange would help the General Services Administration better target promising opportunities for taking advantage of the authority, a recent report by the Government Accountability Office concludes. Real property exchanges, which the report calls “swap-construct” exchanges, allow the government to trade property to developers for construction services or existing facilities. The authority can help GSA deal with the challenge of disposing of unneeded property and modernizing or replacing federal buildings, but multiple factors can affect the success of such an approach …

Corvias Air Force Living, the family housing developer at Eielson Air Force Base, filed a lawsuit in federal court last week to stop the Fairbanks North Star Borough from assessing property taxes on about 900 homes it manages at the installation. Because the Air Force had leased the land where the housing is located to a private entity, the borough assessed the developer a $1.8 million tax bill for the current year. The borough and Corvias had entered negotiations to reach agreement on a payment in lieu of taxes that would have lowered the bill to $580,000, but a deal was never reached …

A dead runway at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., is now being used to train airmen for a variety of occupations, including tractor trailer and crane operators, and explosive ordnance disposal technicians. Dobbins donated the runway and several acres of land to the Air Force Reserve Command’s Expeditionary Combat Support Training Certification Center in 2001, according to Air Force Civil Engineer Center Public Affairs. AFCEC manages some of the training programs offered by the training center; other programs include mobile aircraft arresting systems and use of the reverse osmosis water purification unit …

At a House hearing on Tuesday, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said the federal government’s ownership of 7,000 unneeded properties worth $350 billion is “unacceptable.” “The Congress and public will be astounded to learn of the unbelievable inventory of properties uncovered in documents provided to the committee after waiting nearly three years,” said Mica, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform’s Government Operations Subcommittee. Nearly 1,500 of the unneeded properties are valued in the multi-million-dollar range …